The branching and continually growing nature of the Feminist Literary Criticism resembles a tree--so where are the roots?

The school of feminist literary criticism has its foundation in inquiry of the traditional gender roles that imprisoned women for centuries. For many women, writing was the only outlet available to express their desires to break free of their subordinate status and later challenge quotidian gender stereotypes. To fully appreciate the application of the feminist criticism to Their Eyes Were Watching God, a knowledge of its history is essential. The fostering of women's unique voice in writing allows for this criticism to exist; if women had simply adhered to male stylistic tendencies in their own writing, the whole of literature would be lopsided in perspective. Teachers, if possible, should incorporate elements of this rich timeline of women’s advancements in writing into their lessons. The development of feminism in literature is commonly divided into phases, or "waves." While works that supported increased appreciation of women appeared in times earlier than these (for example, famous pro-equality piece A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft was published in 1792), feminine literary achievement became perceptively divisible into three sections in the mid-nineteenth century: the feminine, feminist, and female. The feminine phase occurred from 1840 to 1880; during this time, writing from female authors attempted to mimic the male voice and integrate within the "sphere" of the opposite sex. Pieces published during this time shared a common emphasis on submission and obedience, as females were conflicted between desires to follow male tradition or break away from it. Interestingly, the common use of male pseudonyms by female authors in this era can be attributed to this trend. Well-known authors from this period include Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Florence Nightengale, and George Eliot. The feminist wave followed in 1880 and continued until 1920--during this bracket, women writers abandoned the pretense of affability with their "metaphorical paralysis" and instead clamored for equality with men in all areas. Writing in this period was a "vehicle for a dramatization of wronged womanhood," calling for a retribution of all that had been denied to women because of their gender. Major works from Kate Chopin, Mary Braddon, and Florence Marryat also came from this period, illuminating the imprisoning qualities of marriage and lack of economic freedoms for women. Some critics believe that artistry was often set aside to make room for argument in many of the works from this period, especially in stories by Mona Caird and Sarah Grand (among others). The final phase, which also gave birth to the actual feminist criticism, is the female phase. While this area spans from 1920 to present day, the traits that define it from the other two phases are most evident during the 1960s. Here, authors expressed a more internal focus; instead of retaliating against oppositional views, they turned towards self-realization and independence. This included a representation of subject matter in texts that would be considered unmentionable in previous times, such as sexuality and anger as necessary elements of a woman's life. Their Eyes Were Watching God falls into this category, along with publications by Virginia Woolf, Dorothy Richardson, and countless others. While the authors of such feminist works provided the foreground for feminist criticism to function, the modern contemporary women's movement can be credited with detailing the fundamental values of this school of criticism. As women in the late twentieth century protested for social equality with men, writers Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan, and Kate Millet examined the inequalities that differentiated male and female writing. Millet magnified the "interior colonization" of women by men; her focus was confined to the consideration of male dominance, especially in how this was the most prominent form of power. Her piece entitled Sexual Politics is regarded as the first ubiquitously known work of feminist literary criticism. De Beauvoir's work The Second Sex (1949) argued that men cultivated the differences between themselves and women, and that writing about women serves the purpose of ascertaining more about themselves. Betty Friedan's work The Feminine Mystique focused more on dissolving the stereotypes associated with a typical American homemaker; her work advocated the abolishment of misconstruities based on gender and enforced equal rights between men and women. Teachers should note that this page only touches the surface of this theory's history; the scope of feminism in literature is so broad that no single source can cover each facet. If a more specific explanation of any portion of this page is needed, the "Works Cited" page (found under the "more" tab) offers references with further elaboration on the points discussed here.

Additional Information:

The feminist theory itself can be interpreted differently along structural lines. One method of looking at the Feminist Literary Criticism is referred to as the "French influence." This mode of evalutating gender roles in a piece focuses on the use of language, mainly on the possibility of males restricting a distinct female language. The "American" perspective focuses more on the patriarchal aspects of a text as a whole, including the way in which the writer regards their placement of superiority. A third method of feminist criticism involves examining the exclusion of women authors from collections of literary works accepted as representing the novel, also known as the canon. This type of evaluation draws on the domination of male works within the canon and excluding works by authors such as Kate Chopin (The Awakening, Story of an Hour) from its ranks.